Horse-carriage activists in uncivil war

Animal-rights allies divided; may scrap vintage-car plan.

Activists may scrap vintage e-cars in favor of motorized carriages to replace houses.

Animal-rights activists are not only fighting carriage-horse drivers, editorial boards and public opinion in their efforts to ban Central Park carriages—they're also battling each other.

The Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages, a volunteer-based nonprofit, has been at odds with New Yorkers for Clean, Livable and Safe Streets, a newer group founded by parking-lot magnate Steven Nislick, who has tried to mainstream the animal-rights efforts.

In mid-April, NYCLASS unveiled a much-hyped prototype for an antique-style electric car meant to replace the horse carriages and their drivers' jobs should the industry be shut down, as activists hope. That same day, the Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages panned the vehicle as "not a viable solution."

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Late last week, Queens state Sen. Tony Avella, a leading proponent of the carriage ban, convened a meeting of those two groups and several others to get everyone on the same page.

The two nonprofits weren't always at odds. One of the original leaders of the coalition, founded in 2006, came up with the antique-car idea. And Mr. Nislick, the millionaire who founded NYCLASS in 2008, was once closely aligned with the coalition and helped raise funds for it. Mr. Nislick's wife is a longtime animal-rights activist.

The falling-out came over a shift in tactics pushed by Mr. Nislick, according to coalition head Elizabeth Forel. In late 2008, NYCLASS retained the Parkside Group lobbying firm to line up lawmakers' support.

Motorized carriages

"He had hired Parkside, and I remember him telling us that Parkside wanted—when we lobbied the City Council—to just focus on the cars, not the animals, not the humanity of it," Ms. Forel said. "We didn't like the way this group was moving. It didn't seem to take the horses into consideration at all."

Sources close to Mr. Nislick, meanwhile, say he was happy to rid his efforts of what he saw as its more extreme elements.

Mr. Nislick also initially tried to woo former council Speaker Christine Quinn to support the ban. At a 2011 event surreptitiously recorded by a horse-carriage driver, Mr. Nislick said the Quinn camp was appreciative of the campaign funds he was raising for her mayoral bid—and of the potential manpower animal-rights activists could provide.

"It's about her helping us, and us getting supporters," Mr. Nislick said on the recording reviewed by Crain's. "We're not making a lot of trouble."

Mr. Nislick in 2011 hired one of Parkside's rivals, the Advance Group, whose president, Scott Levenson, reportedly threatened political retaliation if Ms. Quinn didn't come around. The former speaker would not yield, and the Advance Group last year organized a $1 million campaign a gainst her that helped elect Bill de Blasio mayor. The series of events is now reportedly being probed by the FBI.

Ms. Forel said there's no doubt that Mr. Nislick's dollars made a difference in the 2013 elections because "money talks." Still, after initially supporting the concept, her group has been skeptical of NYCLASS' electric-car strategy for several years.

"$150,000 to $175,000 for a car? You're talking about roughly $12 million," Ms. Forel said. "I don't see how anyone would invest in something so risky."

Her group is instead pitching the idea of retrofitting existing horse carriages with motors, which she says would cost as little as $10,000 each. The de Blasio administration—which has pushed back implementing the ban until the end of 2014—is reviewing the idea, she said.

A NYCLASS spokesman said, "Ending the unsafe and inhumane use of horse carriages on New York City streets is the priority."

At last week's meeting of animal-rights groups, Mr. Avella said, everyone agreed to start working together. NYCLASS' plan to build the pricey electric cars also may be scrapped for the coalition's less expensive retrofitting idea, he said.

"The main issue for everyone is eliminating the carriage-horse industry," Mr. Avella said. "I think, now, everyone agrees that the plan is to do whatever works."